Court begins hearing on quash petition filed by Harish Rao in phone tapping case
Hyderabad: The Panjagutta police on Wednesday requested the Telangana High Court to vacate its interim stay order, which restrained the police from arresting former minister T. Harish Rao and former DCP P. Radhakishan Rao in the second phone-tapping issue. However, the High Court extended the interim stay till February 19, as arguments in quash petitions were not yet completed.
Justice K. Lakshman initiated the hearing in the quash petitions filed by Harish Rao and Radhakishan Rao, who requested the court to quash the FIR against them in said issue.
Dama Seshadri Naidu, a senior counsel representing Harish Rao, disputed the antecedents of the de facto complainant G. Chakradhar Goud, as he has 11 criminal cases such as pending against him since 2006 on the charges of rape, fraud and other offences. He also claimed that the state government has been supporting a person who has a criminal background.
The senior counsel also argued that the current government has registered FIR against its political rivals. Further, he said the police has also charged Harish with various sections like extortion and breach of trust — the offences that the complaint did not accuse him for.
Seshadri Naidu also argued that the complaint is vague, and vindictive and its only motive is to seek vengeance against the petitioner.
The only ground, the senior counsel said, on which the de facto complainant stands firm on his complaint is that he has received an email and a message from the mobile handset maker “Apple Inc”, which says that his phone was tapped.
However, the counsel said that such a type of messages have been received by many people.
Interrupting the arguments of the senior counsel, Justice K. Lakshman observed that he too had received such a message from Apple Inc, which has no relevance.
On the claims of the de facto complainant about his charity, the senior counsel said that the value of assets, cash and others declared by the de facto complainant during the recent election was only `2 lakh and wondered how he could spend `2.5 crore to the farmers.
On behalf of the state government, senior counsel Siddharth Luthra argued that Harish Rao misused his official position to harass the de facto complainant with the help of Radha Kishan Rao, who was the DCP task force during the BRS government. He said all the sections, which have been included in the FIR against the petitioners, have the ingredients for registration of the FIR.
Luthra said a nine-judge bench of the Supreme Court had ruled that “privacy is a right of a person and invading into the privacy of individuals by tapping their phones is a blatant violation under the Telegraphic Act under Section 4(1) 9a. The entire act of harassing the de facto complainant by Harish Rao in nexus with Radha Kishan Rao is a blatant violation of rules.
Due to paucity of time, the judge adjourned both the petitions for further hearing to February 19 and extended the interim protection to Harish Rao and Radha Kishan Rao from arrest till the next date of hearing.
